Hi Everybody,

Just bought myself my first Datsun............a 1982 280C (430) and I'm loving it!

I basically bought it as a toy / hobby but I've driven it every day to work (Oyster Bay to Minchinbury) and I'm amazed how well these cars cruise on the freeway.

Mine is a one owner with 248K kms and has obviously been well maintained mechanically.. EVERYTHING still works and the blue cloth interior is nearly mint.. no cracks, tears etc... even the a/c is icy cold?!

Unfortunately after 30 years of city living the body has a few battle scars but from 10ft away he looks clean and straight and after a polish the silver paint came up reasonably shiny!!!

Enough of all that... The only modification I want to do on my 280C is to lower it... I've seen some pics on this forum that have inspired me to drop mine around 3- 4"... Maybe 5" .. The front in particular sits quite high. I've read a couple of people have got the angle grinder out and cut a couple of coils off the spring but I'm not sure about tackling something like that myself.

Do any of you know someone you can trust in southern sydney (Sutherland shire in particular) that can handle this job? To be honest I'd prefer a smaller (more caring?) workshop than a large suspension workshop. Any contacts would be greatly appreciated

Hope to catch up with a few of you fellow Datsun owners at some of the upcoming events.

Cheers,

Al

For heaps of lows, you might wanna go airbags.

I do lowering progressively so I find out what driveability/ride quality is coming of each step. Remove a leaf from the rear end, chop half a coil off a front spring etc.

For a big drop at the rear end you might want custom made leaf springs (430 are still leaf sprung yeah? Only Y30 is coil?) because big lowering blocks are pretty mechanically awful.

I've got custom made coils in the front of my 260C (230) that were supposed to be lowered a fair bit but they weren't, so I just cut a coil off them and that made them a bit better, but with the new wheels they'll need another half a coil and a trimmed bump stop I presume

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1973 H230 Wagon, 'ILL-260'
1975 911S Targa
1978 Torana Hatch
1999 GXE10

Heath, coils at the back on the 430 bro..

Welcome Al, I live in Sydney too so we'll see each other around for sure one day!

And welcome to Ozdat!

Got any pics to throw up?

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1971 240C P230 coupe L28 10.5:1 comp. N/A Haltech Elite 750. ITB's, tuned exhaust, 6 speed manual trans 4.625 LSD

'Nissantiques - Join the Club'

Thanks guys,

I was just about to reply... Mine has coils at the rear!

Looking at mine again the rear looks pretty sagged (only an inch gap between top of tyre and wheel arch but around 5" gap on front?!) so I'll probably leave the rear and just have a crack at the front as it drives smooth.. I also intend on leaving it on the original polished alloys

Tried putting some pics up but they're too large so I'll need to work on that.

Also, as a side note, there is a neat looking red 330 with black rims at a business just down the road here from my warehouse in Minchinbury... I'm going down to say hi later this afternoon.... anyone on here?!

And finally.......... will you guys be at the rare spares event over the weekend (saturday?)

Get an account with Photobucket and it can downsize the photos to a size that you want as you upload them, then just link them across with the [ IMG ] blahblahblah.jpg [/ IMG ] tags.

_________________
1973 H230 Wagon, 'ILL-260'
1975 911S Targa
1978 Torana Hatch
1999 GXE10

Just got my picture trail account organised.

Testing testing:-









Will organise some interior pics if this works!!!

Cheers,

Al

Nice car man!

Dunno about the car show on the weekend, got soccer on.

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1971 240C P230 coupe L28 10.5:1 comp. N/A Haltech Elite 750. ITB's, tuned exhaust, 6 speed manual trans 4.625 LSD

'Nissantiques - Join the Club'

Damn! Looks great.

While you're lowering it, you should paint inside the wheel wells with some black sound deadener or chassis paint to get rid of that browny look in the sunlight.

But yeah a few inches down on that thing will look sick.

_________________
1973 H230 Wagon, 'ILL-260'
1975 911S Targa
1978 Torana Hatch
1999 GXE10

Thanks!

I've got a couple of cans of flat black that'll do the trick!

the only place i would take my datto for suspension work in the Shire is east coast suspension at taren point.
They really know there stuff.

_________________
http://www.datnet.org
http://www.sydneydatsunclub.com

One of my Porsche buddies said exactly the same thing.... very highly regarded in and outside the shire.

Cheers

A lot of the lowering stuff is fairly easy work if you have some hand tools. Some people just aren't interested in working on cars but I have to at least try to encourage it

It should be noted though, that when you alter the ride height of a car a significant amount (particularly the front end of an old car where there is considerable 'bump steer') you should get a wheel alignment to just check the camber change and get the toe where it should be again. So that's a lot more easily done at a workshop where they have good facilities.

_________________
1973 H230 Wagon, 'ILL-260'
1975 911S Targa
1978 Torana Hatch
1999 GXE10

I'd love to have a crack at it but i really don't have to space or technical skill to pull apart my front suspension.

I have the tools and am reasonably handy with an angle grinder but that's about it! LOL

any progress? wanna see this thing dropped

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tradesafe: Dazda, 2ndTimeStanza, Qeleh, big mac, hatchman


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